Police are expecting to charge several people today over the recent spate of violence against forest protestors in the Upper Florentine Valley. Police say at least five people will be charged with assault and trespass. The charges relate to an incident last week when activists sitting in a car were allegedly attacked by men with a sledgehammer.
Ula Majewski from the group Still Wild Still Threatened says the incidents have not deterred them
"There was certainly potential for someone to be hurt and we just think that it's a really unfortunate situation when the larger issue is that Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited should not be sending contractors into very contentious coupes of high-conservation, high value old growth forests," she said.
She says more and more people are joining the group of activists who plan to stay at the coupe for as long as it takes.
"Forest activists have been greatly buoyed by the massive outpouring of community support and they will continue peacefully defend the pristine old growth forests of the Upper Florentine Valley."
“The sad irony of this situation is that these forest activists are attempting peacefully to protect the very forests that Labor’s own Tasmania Together process identified as deserving protection, yet basically Premier Bartlett has thrown these young people to the wolves.”
“This is not the leadership Tasmania needs and deserves, and it definitely is not ‘kind and connected’ either,” Mr Morris said.
In Canada yesterday, 21 countries passed a unanimous resolution, which calls upon the Australian Government to take steps to extend the boundaries of the TWWHA to cover areas of Outstanding Universal Value, outside the existing protected area. These areas include the Lower Weld Valley, Middle Huon and other places which the HVEC has been campaigning to protect.